stefansson-wrangel-09-25-004-014

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we could return from the beach and get it anytime.

We started next morning and arrived at Shipwreck Camp
at 6 P.M. I should judge it was forty miles. Next day we loaded the sleds.
It took us three days to cover on the return journey what we had made in one
day coming out.

On the second day about three P.M. I was behind the team
when my dogs stopped, turned in their tracks, and commenced growling, their
hair standing stiff. I looked behind me and there was a bear about six
feet from the sled. If the dogs hadn't smelt it I should never have known
what hit me. They made a break for him and he backed off a few feet, giving
me a chance to get my gun and give it to him in the head. We found him
about ten feet from tip to tip, with three inches of fat blubber. We made camp,
for it was getting dusk.

While I was tinkering at the camp and the other boys
were cooking the dogs commenced a racket. I looked up and there was a big
bear alongside the sled between me and it, sitting on his haunches and
making passes at the dogs. I ran around the sled and got my rifle, which
was about four feet from the bear. We were not needing any bear meat, so
I tried to frighten him off, but he was too scared of the dogs to pay any
attention to me. I did not want him to kill any of the dogs, and finally
had to shoot him. As I shot I heard another growling match and another bear
piled over a small ridge that was about ten feet from the seld. He had
blood in his eye and went for the dogs as if bent on murder. I had to kill him, which closed a pretty good day so far as bears and dog feed were con-
cerned.

About noon the next day as we were drawing near the
ridge, two men came running to meet us. They were the Chief and one of the
sailors, who helped us over the ridge to camp.